Meet the bin slimmers

Each week, I will be introducing some of the volunteers who have signed up for the Rubbish Diet challenge, so that we can find out more about their rubbish, the issues that arise and their plans for slimming those bins.

For Week 1, I'd like to introduce you to two people from Suffolk, Ness and Terry-anna.

Meet Terry-anna

Terry-anna lives with her partner in Ipswich, which falls under the district of Ipswich Borough.

When she first volunteered for the challenge she mentioned that she threw out between 2 -3 bags of rubbish every fortnight. However, already at the start of the challenge this week, she'd already slimmed this down to one and a half bags for her first weigh-in. 

This is great. Taking advantage of less waste, Terry-anna has already ordered a new slimmer bin from her council, a 180L, which will take up less room than the average 240L that's issued to most homes.

Some of the key things that her household will be tackling throughout the Rubbish Diet Challenge include some food waste (but not much), aerosol cans and those annoying little things such as tissues.  However, she doesn't want to stop there. When she was offered the opportunity to have a larger recycling bin, she politely declined.  Instead, she hopes to slim down her recycling bin too.

Huge thanks to Terry-anna for joining in and helping to support the launch of the challenge on BBC Radio Suffolk this week.  You can listen in on the link to Mark Murphy's show, with my introduction at 1hr 6min and Terry-anna's interview at 1hr 25m, where she confesses that she really hopes to get down to zero during Week 8.

*Terry-anna's new bin is part of Ipswich Borough Council's 60\40 plan where they are aiming for 60% recycling and offer residents the choice of smaller rubbish bins and larger recycling bins. 

For Ipswich's recycling guidelines, click here.



Meet Ness

Ness lives with her husband and three children (aged 6, 8 & 10) plus a dog and two cats, in the rural district of Mid Suffolk.

Currently she has two wheelie bins for rubbish, which are generally full to capacity each fortnight.  However, for her first weigh-in this week, she was already pleased to see that her rubbish was down by one bag since she's been preparing to take on the challenge.

The key challenges for Ness will be organic waste and making sure that her family follows the recycling guidelines.  It's a busy household, which means things that can be recycled often get thrown into the rubbish bin.  Just like Ipswich, Mid Suffolk residents benefit from mixed plastics recycling so most packaging can be put in the recycling bin for kerbside collection. 

However, Mid Suffolk doesn't collect compostables, except for garden waste, and even so, this service is only provided on subscription for residents who need it.  Knowing that organic waste such as peelings and odd pieces of mouldy fruit end up in her rubbish bin, Ness has committed herself to getting to grips with home-composting and has already got a bin on order.

She's also focusing on how she can organise other materials to drop at the Household Waste Recycling Centre, which admittedly is not always a convenient exercise, but will allow her to recycle textiles, Tetrapaks,  plastic film and hard plastic.  I'm hoping that by the end of this challenge, Ness will have cut her rubbish down by at least half and the council will be able to wheel that second bin away.

*For Mid Suffolk's recycling guidelines, click here.


I'll be reporting back on how both households have managed later on in the challenge.  In the meantime, for further information about recycling facilities in Suffolk, visit the county's new website.

Decluttering: Thank you Suffolk for making it easy to recycle hard plastic

I have to confess that my decluttering antics have not been going great this last week, partly because I've fallen into the zone of despair wondering where else to tackle first. And it's also been a mixed week with my youngest being off school poorly with an unknown allergy rash. While he insists that he's allergic to potatoes, I've spent my time looking after him and balancing all the other things that need doing such as washing pants and having the odd peek into Twitter.

So can you imagine my delight whenI saw a very distracting tweet from @SuffolkHWRC that said [sic]"Hard plastic recycling is now avalible at Hadleigh, Mildenhall & Felixstowe HWRC's".

Well that got me excited in a manner that had me immediately pondering a day out at Felixstowe beach...via a sightseeing visit to the recently upgraded Household Waste Recycling Centre. Poor Mr A, I could imagine the response.

"Here she goes again," he'd say in a less than enthusiastic manner.

But it would be worth it. We've got so many broken plastic toys that have been cluttering up the play shed in the garden that to have the opportunity to send them for recycling would free up a good amount of space.

They are old toys which were down-graded to garden play as soon as they had broken bits and were beyond repair. I couldn't bear the idea of them going to waste in landfill so retained them for a while longer instead. But during the last year, the writing has been on the wall. They're hardly played with anymore and it was time to reconsider their future. My first thought was to advertise them on Freecycle, but even with the group's reputation for saving stuff from landfill, I think a bag of dubious, broken, grit-filled toys may be stretching it somewhat.

There are enough broken toys in the world to share amongst those who find the need, so I think I will give this bag of stuff a new lease of life and take them along to the HWRC.

The good news is however, I discovered yesterday that these facilities are also in place at the HWRC in Bury St Edmunds, so I don't have to circumnavigate the system after all. Mr A will be pleased that he doesn't have to go on a recycling sight-seeing tour next time we're over on the coast.

In fact, when I told him last night about the new facilities at Bury St Edmunds, he gave me a huge grin and said "I know"!

Apparently, he saw the Hard Plastics sign when he was there last time.

Obviously he wasn't as excited as me, as that was weeks ago!

But with my new found knowledge I am now on a mission to go through the children's bedrooms as well as the garden and gather together all of those annoying bits of broken plastic toys. I've also got a few old grotty plastic plates that have seen better days too.

As far as I'm aware, hard plastics recycling facilities are far and few between in the UK, so it's great that this new opportunity has come to Suffolk. The services are operated by a company called Waste Recycling Group. So it's worth checking out their website, to see if they manage waste recovery at a centre near you. Who knows, you might have hard plastic recycling nearby too. Even if it's not available yet, it's always worth checking with your local recycling officer to see if such services are coming soon.

Alternatively, if you're passing through Suffolk, you could always drop them off at a participating recycling centre. Or would that be too cheeky?

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Suffolk to become a Zero Waste Place

On-street recycling bin in Ipswich, Suffolk.

Things are most definitely hotting up in the UK, with Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for the Environment today announcing plans to turn Britain into a "Zero Waste Nation", expecting all local authorities to offer comprehensive collection services by 2020.

Included in his strategy is a ban on recyclable materials from landfill and schemes to encourage better recycling, including the generation of energy from collected food waste. As well as municipal waste, there are also plans to reduce commercial and industrial waste, working with businesses and the waste management industry to encourage innovative practices.

This is great news in itself, but what excites me more in a "Football's coming home" kind of way, is that my local county of Suffolk, in the East of England, has been chosen as one of six new Zero Waste places to trial what many are calling the government's tough new recycling policy.

Representing the Suffolk Waste Partnership, Councillor Roy Barker, has this evening been quoted in the local press, saying he is delighted that Suffolk is at the forefront of this innovative scheme.

And I can certainly share his enthusiasm, especially as it has been confirmed that Suffolk residents are already among the best recyclers in the country, with half of our waste being diverted from landfill.

So where can Suffolk go next in its Zero Waste plans?

Well, the exciting news is the announcement of the "Suffolk Seven Streets" project, which has been awarded a £10,000 grant from DEFRA, challenging local households to reduce their rubbish even further, indeed by half.

One street in each of the seven Suffolk local authority districts will be selected to test a new recycling regime. And with the support of council recycling teams, businesses and residents will be encouraged to see who can reduce their rubbish the most.

Further news will be available over the next few months as the local scheme takes shape and I can't wait to report on what's happening in and around the county.

But dare I say, as well as encouraging others, the competitive streak is now rising within me and I am already dancing around in glee flying my own virtual flag for St Edmundsbury. I'm now wondering if I can volunteer my own street and survey our local residents to see if they want to fly the flag with me. I think I might just ring the council and see if we're eligible.

But then again, the thought of knocking on strangers' doors makes me feel like the BBC's choirmaster Gareth Malone trying to create a brand-new community choir in South Oxhey.

I suppose I could always don an England football shirt, and merrily sing "Recycling's coming home" when they answer. Or should it be an Ipswich Town shirt I wonder.

One thing's for sure, if the "Suffolk Seven Streets" project gets as competitive as the local football leagues, just imagine the results.

I won't run ahead of myself quite yet. All I can say is well done to Suffolk County Council and the Suffolk Waste Partnership. Congratulations on taking the lead. When it comes to Zero Waste projects, this is going to be very exciting indeed.

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Eh! At least he tried...a bit!

I've just come back from more fun and frolics at BBC Radio Suffolk, popping into the James Hazell Show to see how James did with his Zero Waste Week challenge.

So, the big question is...did he make it?

Er...um..mmmm

Well...let's just say he didn't do quite as well as his producer Sally Goodwin, who only the week before managed to go zero waste with the exception of a chocolate bar wrapper and some bags and film that I took off her hands to drop off at our local HWRC.

James on the other hand managed ...

...cue drumroll...

....a day!

Even with the promise of a zero waste bar of chocolate as a reward.

Something tells me he didn't quite take it as seriously as Sal.

BUT - and I don't mean cigarette butts - his household bin is only half full each fortnight, which is fab.

AND...

...during the last week, he's discovered there's a recycling bin in the kitchen.

AND...

...he found a reuse for those cigarette butts, which led to some jokes about Hazell's Butt Couture.

AND...

...even if he didn't take it as seriously afterwards, he did manage a rubbish-free day,


...which is, what could be called a vital start!

With news of his partial failure, I'm just relieved that James didn't bring his rubbish bags into the studio, but just in case I was prepared with my safety goggles and rubber gloves.

Because you never know...!

So when it came down to the jury...did he earn his bar of chocolate? Well, call me an old softie, but I just had to say yes. Not sure it was the puppy look that swayed me or the fact that he was trying at the very start of the week [note to Sal - you're free to interpret that as you like].

But I wasn't going to let him get away with it completely, so gave him a couple of booby prizes, including a special souvenir from Felixstowe that I picked up from Fran Crowe's exhibition at the weekend....a piece of old rope that she rescued from the beach during her work "Walking to Save Some Sea".

So the final verdict?

Well James - at least you tried...a bit,

...but could do better,

so.... shall I come in and see you again next year?

Eh?

With 12 months notice, we're bound to see further improvement.

But seriously, huge thanks to both Sally and James for everything they've done to promote the message about the range of recycling facilities that exist across Suffolk and giving me a chance to plug Recycle Now's Recycle Week.

It has been lots of fun!

So for me, it's feet up for the next couple of months until I'm back again for the Girls Talk session in September.

Who am I kidding. I'm afraid it'll be nose to the recycling grindstone as usual.

Update: You can hear it all for yourself on the BBC's Listen Again service. Just fast forward to two hours into the programme at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p003lm3k/James_Hazell_07_07_2009/

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Swapping clothes for Recycle Week

I love this poster by Suffolk County Council, promoting a clothes swap shop for Recycle Week. And I really wish I could go, because at these events I always find something I love. It's always a great opportunity to pass unwanted items onto a better home too.

However, I can't get along because of events relating to my pledge, but if you live in Suffolk, why not see if you can pop along yourself and take some friends. It's at Sproughton Tithe Barn, Tuesday 23rd June, 6pm - 9pm.

Doors will be open between 6pm to 7pm to accept clothing and then from 7pm onwards, individuals will be welcome to swap 'til they drop! Members of the public have been asked to bring a minimum of 1 item and a maximum of 10 of clothes,shoes and jewellery. There will also be bring banks collecting end of life textiles that would normally end up in the black bin with the aim of diverting them from landfill and recycling them instead.

It really does look like fun.

Suffolk County Council is busy supporting Recycle Week's Lets Waste Less theme by focusing on recycling textiles, so there are more opportunities to recycle your clothing across the county. For more information about what's happening in Suffolk, pop over to www.suffolkrecycling.org.uk

And don't forget, there's still time to make your pledge for Recycle Week, which starts on Monday. So if you've got a spare couple of minutes - that's all it takes - hop over to Recycle Now, where you can also find if there are similar events happening in your area.

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